« FabShop Hop Embroidery Sale – July 8-14 | Main | Last week of FabShop Hop Sale!!! »
Eliminating Puckers Around Designs
By Serena Nabeta | July 10, 2007
This is the third lesson in our series – Common Embroidery Flops, Causes & Solutions!
We have all had it happen to designs we have stitched. After the design is finished, there are puckers or wrinkles in the fabric around the design. Sometime it is so bad that the fabric will be tucked in small areas underneath the stitches. Other times there will just be slight ripple here and there and not be that noticeable. What causes these puckers and how can you get rid of them?
Why are puckers in the fabric so common around embroidery designs? The simple answer is that’s just the way it works. But maybe this longer answer will help you to understand why puckers so frequently happen. The needle is constantly going down into the fabric and coming back up. Think about it a second – how many times does the needle penetrate through the fabric when stitching a design? If the design has 20,000 stitches, the needle has to go down and come back up 20,000 times. Every time the needle penetrates the fabric, it pulls up the woven threads ever so slightly. By the end of your design, the fabric has been pulled ever so slightly 20,000 times. It is easy to see why puckers or wrinkles tend to develop.
Cause: Puckers or wrinkles around your design can be caused by several things. One of the most common causes is using the incorrect stabilizer for the design you are stitching. If you are using spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the stabilizer instead of hooping it, there may be a not enough adhesive sprayed to properly hold the fabric down as the machine is stitching. Another factor to consider is the density of the design for the fabric. Some fabrics have more “give” to them than others and work better for dense designs.
Solution: If your design is already stitched and you have puckers or wrinkles, there are some ways to eliminate or at least get rid of a few of them. The first thing to do is carefully press the design from the wrong side. This will often make the design look much better and take care of many wrinkles. Spray starch to the fabric wrong side and see if it will eliminate some of the wrinkles. Starch stiffens the fabric which helps to iron out the puckers. Another option is to put batting behind the design and stipple or quilt around the designs edges. This will give the project texture as well as make the ripples disappear.
Prevention: Use the right combination of stabilizers with the fabrics and designs you are stitching. Follow the guidelines for cut away and tear away stabilizers. Knits, fabrics with stretch and large density designs (30,000+) need cut away stabilizer and possibly aqua film as a topping to prevent puckers and wrinkles. Cottons, denim and lighter weight designs (30,000 or below) can use tear away stabilizer and depending on the fabric, usually won’t require aqua film. If you are hooping the stabilizer and using spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to the stabilizer in the hoop, be sure you have sprayed enough to adequately hold the fabric. Denser designs may need a little more than lighter weight designs.
If the fabric is lightweight, starch it or iron fusible interfacing to the back before stitching. Do the same if the fabric is a cotton/poly blend. The poly does not allow the fabric to stretch and give as it is stitched, therefore allowing it to absorb the puckers. Cotton and flannel have more “give” in the fibers than a polyester blend. You also might want to choose lightweight designs to stitch on poly blends and leave the denser designs for cotton or flannel. If I am stitching a dense design, I have found that starching the fabric or adding fusible interfacing to the back is a great help in eliminating the puckers that tend to appear around the design. Give it a try and you will be amazed at the results!
The fabric around this design is starting to pucker as it is being stitched.
The stabilizer needs more spray adhesive to hold the fabric
to it for stitching the embroidery design.
The fabric is smooth and flat in the hoop as the machine
is stitching this design. It has been stuck down very well to the
stabilizer to hold it for the duration of the design.
This is a design stitched on a poly/cotton blend broadcloth.
You can see the puckers in the fabric around the design.
The poly in the fabric does not allow very much “give”.
This is the same design stitched on the same poly/cotton broadcloth,
but So Sheer fusible interfacing was fused on before stitching the design.
The interfacing adds more stability to the fabric to prevent
some of the puckers. There are still a few waves in the fabric,
but not near to the degree as the previous photo.
This is the same design, but it is stitched on 100% cotton fabric
without interfacing on the back. Once it is pressed, the fabric
and design lay smooth and flat. The cotton fabric has absorbed
the puckers in the fabric, making it an easier fabric
to stitch on than a poly/cotton blend.
Topics: Embroidery, Embroidery Flops | Comments Off
Comments are closed.